PwC Canada is bolstering the number of women appointed to senior leadership roles and aims to reach parity in those admissions by 2020 — a goal it shares with the global company.

“I’m a firm believer that it’s absolutely attainable,” says Phil Grosch, PwC’s digital services leader in Canada, who in 2011 helped start a program to keep top performing women in the company, which has subsequently helped boost their numbers in leadership roles.

The business consulting firm isn’t alone in its quest. Bank of Montreal, MasterCard and Twitter are among a growing stable of companies committed to increasing the number of women in senior roles.

A 2016 study from the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) and professional services firm EY and a 2015 report from consulting firm McKinsey & Co show that gender diversity at senior levels increases financial returns.

For Grosch, the initiative is simply the right thing to do.

[np_storybar title=”Leadership chain” link=””]

MasterCard has also been focusing on equality. The company, which has more than 11,000 employees and operates in 210 countries, sees diversity and inclusion as critical to strengthening business, says Kelly Joscelyne, the global chief talent officer.

“Women are a significant part of our leadership team – from our CFO to the head of our international markets to several other executive level positions,” New York-based Joscelyne says, adding 25 per cent of the company’s board are women.

“Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 per cent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians,” she says.

MasterCard has been running a Women’s Leadership Network since 2008 to help employees develop their skills. And since then about 40 per cent of all employees have been involved with the program in some manner.

However, the company’s commitment doesn’t stop there.

They started a Girls4Tech program in April 2014 for middle school students. More than 12,000 girls in 13 countries have taken workshops through the program and more than 800 employees have acted as mentors and role models to those students.

“We’re committed to unlocking the larger potential by engaging, enabling and empowering equality and opportunity for women and girls everywhere,” she says.

[/np_storybar]

“This is about reflecting the Canadian landscape; 50 per cent of the workforce are women and we should reflect that,” Toronto-based Grosch says.

Of the 6,700 people employed by PwC in Canada, about 550 partners are considered to be in senior roles. The goal is for partnership admissions to reach a 50:50 ratio by 2020. This year about 22 per cent of the new partners were women and next year that’s expected to rise to 34 per cent. PwC’s executive team of seven includes two women.

Canadian companies are making progress, said Tanya van Biesen, the executive director of Catalyst, a non-profit organization that advocates for women in the workplace. For example, BMO increased women’s representation among senior leaders in Canada and the United States from 33 per cent in 2012 to 40 per cent last year.

“Canada’s 100 largest companies by revenue have moved the dial significantly,” she says. “Between 2011 and 2016, these companies have increased the average representation of women on their boards from 15 per cent to 25 per cent.”

However, there’s still a lot to do to achieve parity, she said, pointing to a 2016 PIIE study, which said men hold 86 per cent of executive positions in Canada and 93 per cent of board seats.

PwC’s Grosch said he’s been talking about the importance of gender equality throughout his 25-year career. And when he noticed that PwC was losing mid-career women, he created a six-month program to empower, inspire and support talented women. It was so successful that it grew, and is now held twice a year.

Tyler Anderson / National Post

The program covers leadership skills, tools for building personal goals, networking and practical experience. More than 150 women have gone through the program, which began in 2011-12 and many of them have gone on to become partners at PwC.

“Personally, I’m a huge believer that diversity of teams bring diversity of thought and experience,” Grosch says. “Gender differences balance a team out and bring more thoughtfulness and empathy into the equation.”

A few years after his program took off, PwC got involved with HeForShe, a movement launched by UN Women in September 2014, which encourages girls, boys, women and men to work together to bring about gender equality.

As part of a 2015 HeForShe initiative, Dennis Nally, PwC International’s chairman, pledged to drive change. Since then the global company’s ranks of female senior leaders have risen from 22 per cent to 44 per cent.

New York-based Elizabeth Nyamayaro, executive director of the movement and the senior advisor to the Under Secretary-General UN Women, says: “HeForShe exists because creating real and lasting social change requires all of us.”

However, she points out that the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Global Gender Gap Report predicted it could take 170 years to close the gap in pay equity, and that there’s a lot of work to be done to achieve gender equity.

“Among the world’s largest corporations, it is estimated that men hold 95 per cent of CEO positions,” she says. “From a business and economic perspective, the importance of equality is clear, and we can’t reach equality if women are just at the base and not found throughout leadership roles.”

Nyamayaro, who first encountered the UN as a hungry child receiving porridge in Zimbabwe and went on to get her masters at London School of Economics and an executive education at Harvard Business School, knows how tough it can be to break through barriers, but she’s a firm believer that it can and should be done.

“McKinsey estimates that US$12 trillion could be added to the global GDP by 2025 if we closed the gender gap,” she says.

“At UN Women we also note that research indicates that diverse teams make better decisions and have better outcomes for organizations as a whole. Furthermore, senior women serve as role models and mentors for younger women and men in the pipeline and normalize the notion that all genders deserve a seat at the table.”

Having role models and mentors and supportive workplaces can help women advance their careers.

Toronto-based Sharlene Locke, the president of personal insurance at brokerage Hub International Ontario Ltd., says her company’s been supportive in helping her advance her career since she started as a regional chief financial officer 17 years ago.

“When I came into the business it was male dominated,” she says, adding that it has since changed.

“Hub definitely promotes women into the executive space,” Locke says, noting that Tina Osen is the Canadian president and Terri Botosan is the president of Hub Financial.

Locke says that having mentors, being involved with FEI Canada, an association of about 1,600 senior financial officers, and getting further education also helped her work her way up.

And, she adds, it’s important to think big.

That’s what the UN’s Nyamayaro did and what PwC’s Grosch did with his initial pilot project.

“Gender diversity is not a women’s issue,” Grosch says. “How can you talk about gender if only one gender is involved?

“Everybody benefits if we create an environment where talent rises to the top and is given a full opportunity irrespective of gender or any other lens.”

If Friday's gains are anything to go by, investors are champing at the bit

Comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our community guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.